Friday, August 04, 2006

Day 04

pheww.. day 4.

that's fast.

days are good.

so many things i want to do.
i want to fix the Gundam model.
i've bought it for nearly a month now.
i want to finish reading books.
i've bought them for nearly a year now.
i want to play Metal Gear Solid 3.
i've wanted since it was released.
i want to make comics again.
i've wanted it forever.
i want to finish writing the shortfilm script.
i've wanted it forever-forever.

sigh. so many things, so little time.

and you very well know that is just an excuse.
its nature that we humans are just plain lazy.
"technology" is a good example that we are
indeed the laziest beings in the world.
even we workin hard is just so we don't have
to work so hard anymore in the future.

what's wrong with just not workin?
you don't eat, that's what.
in this real world, you don't work,
you don't eat. so work!

does painting consider work?
many disagree. many feels that its only
a hobby.

isn't it great to have your hobby as your
work? luckily for some, it is so.
now, here's the tricky part:
when you able to make your hobby as work,
will your work be as fun as your hobby was?
or will your work be as "free" as your hobby was?
"free" meaning more flexible, through yr
own personal liking, which i feel its the
more natural-beautiful work.

you get what i'm trying to say here?

ok, i'll summarize again:

work hard=better living in the future.
you'll give anything and everything in able
to have that result.


hobby=fun,pleasure,releasing stress,free expression.

work+hobby=result>hobby
or
work+hobby=result=hobby

and look, i'm not saying that work brings me down
from fixing the Gundam toy or playin video games.
all i'm saying is:

hobby makes you happier or workin makes you happier?

now, what is life about again?

hobby or workin?

surviving or living.

the last one's not a question.

but a statement.

-chinyew

today's work:





12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your concept seems to have been lifted from the TV show "30 Days", which was a spinoff from the movie "Supersize Me"... I'm not at all sure this paradigm is a good fit
for the process of being/becoming an artist.

Being an artist (a real one) requires a sort of monomania - or obsessive-compulsive disorder, if you prefer - that one either has, or does not have. I don't think it can be
bought, taught, or otherwise acquired - and certainly not in 30 days.

Some would call being an artist a "gift" but the flip side of that coin is that you can't get rid of it, either. It's a compulsion; a "calling" if you prefer more flowery language.

The vast majority of us spend our lives making stuff that no one wants and waiting for something that's never going to happen... Most artists (I'm not talking about
hobbyists or other dilettantes) lead rather sordid lives, and by any rational/material standards would be better off without it.

The problems a real artist faces would seem to be the same in any country: poverty, and the fact that very few people are ever going to understand or appreciate what you
do. It doesn't seem to me that your "30 Day Artist" project deals with any real issues.

"JMO!"

chinyew said...

thanks for the comment.

but give me a chance at the site.

last year, i did it. and it changed my life.
it made me braver to go out and seek my dreams.

and since 8 artist from different region have joined me for the 30 day escapade. and they learn many out of it.

30day artist is an experience.
it change lives. i receive one email during my
last run of a girl, of how she remembered bout
my paintings when she broke up with her ex.

and my paintings back then was strongly reflect
on my passin on of a breakup.

but this year, i've learned more.
its about the black and white force.
syncrodestiny.

and yes, ironically when you mentioned it,
i do have a poverty-theme painting comin.

not because you mentioned it, but because
i've planned it earlier.

so, please do give www.30dayartist.com a chance.

i met a veteran in a forum once. he was a skeptic.
i challenge him into takin over. and he did.
he repainted 40 over his old paintings.
and now, his havin a solo show.

cheers.

-chinyew

Anonymous said...

I'm happy for you (and welcome to FM, by the way).
However, it strikes me that art and art therapy are two quite different things.

Anonymous said...

you'd like to call me, Hamlet. And comfortable with it.

Looks like we're back to the basic question again: What is art? What is an artist.

By your definition there are not many "real artists" here.

I do not however buy completely the "starving artist" thing. I do belive though that it has something to do with having a gift (or the opposite if you like). Maybe something to do with how one sees the world and a need to comment on it. But then again what differs a flower painting by Monet from another painter's (hobbyist) flowers? Both might feel passionately about water lillies. . . The hobbyist might be a person with less formal skills due to a hard life with lots of obligations and no time for being obsessive.

I agree that you can not be taught to be an artist in 30 days BUT classes and 30 days to explore might bring OUT whatever artistic talent there is.

And let's face it most famous artists have spent years in art colleges or years studying and copying other artists to learn the skills, so you need a bit of skills together with the "gift".

Quote:
The vast majority of us spend our lives making stuff that no one wants and waiting for something that's never going to happen


Quote:
The problems a real artist faces would seem to be the same in any country: poverty, and the fact that very few people are ever going to understand or appreciate what you do.


So by saying that you sort of says that to be a real artist you have to produce stuff that almost no one can relate to . . . By that definition my countryman Munch was not a real artist because almost everyone can relate and understand his paintings . . . . .

I do believe having had some personal experience with hard times often makes the artist make the paiting, the book or whatever art work more interesting, but living like a starving bohemian artist, obsessed with himself and his art does not neccessary lead to good art.

As I started by saying, I DO NOT consider or call myself an artist and probably never will BUT I hope that I might develope a bit more artistic skills as time goes by. Hopefully LOL. At least the world looks very different to me after I began painting.

All in all I do feel that your definitions are a bit too narrow. As a language teacher I have seen talent suddenly burst out with a little support and coaching. I therefore believe that there might be many a hidden artist among the hobbyists. And some kind of 30 days focus (not neccessary this kind) might help the person break loose from the hobbyist's boundries.

Trine
_________________
Life begins at 40, Right? At least my life as an "artist" did.

Anonymous said...

i think this is BS and that this definition for a "real artist" (first off, wtf) is some arbitrary standard set by romaniticizing and flat out lying about some exclusionary ideal set in a place that's intolerant of the mundane. it refuses what it does not love and interprets the ordinary into something special for it's own sake. in short, that mentality has a detatched ignorance that considers itself above the status quo because it proclaimed itself "enlightened"

truth is, no one is above anything.

the notion that one can be a dilletante while another person talks about the utter openess of "real art" pretty much makes any definitive statements like the one quoted completly useless.
but since saying "all levels of creation is art" is solipsistic, theoretical, and disrespects those that have done a lot for their work, my way of looking at "real art", such as it is, only exists in its ability to communicate why it exists. if the artist has truly set a deliberate point and is able enough to share his or her perspective so that you can appreciate it adequately, than that is sucessful.

or you can just BS your way through and let the thinking people make it what it isn't. that's kind of rewarding too.

i like your site. it's not my style but as long as you want to put something across you think is dynamic, engaging, and thoughtful, then keep going

Anonymous said...

Far be it from me to say who is and is not an artist! I'm not a critic.

However perhaps we can agree that not all humans are
artists, and that some art pieces may be considered
as superior to other such things, (according to one's
taste, at least)? If not, it would seem impossible to
speak about art and artists at all.

If one prefers to simply say that everyone is an
artist, and that all human activity is art, that's
certainly OK, and it's a widely held belief. It just
isn't one that I personally have found particularly
useful. As you will have observed from my earlier
post, I have a quite different set of beliefs.

The percieved fault with this "30 day artist"
paradigm is simply that I don't think a person who
was not previously inclined to make art can be
transformed into "an artist" (whatever that may be)
by being subjected to some sort of art boot camp.

And I wouldn't have bothered to say anything at all
if the original poster hadn't rather pointedly asked for a critique.

Anonymous said...

Just because there are so many different views, this is a very intreesting discussion.

Hamlet, by making such a strict divide AND by using "us" real struggling artists, you put yourself among the "chosen few" and the majority of the rest of us you labelled as hobbyists or diletantes. You could not expect NOT to get reactions.

I can feel myself getting more annoyed the more I think about it. First I'd like to say that I like your paintings, the compositions, the simpleness and the topic. (I love the sea myself being born and raised a fisherman's daughter up north on the coast).
I went to your other gallery, and read your biographical stuff etc.
You might have struggled very hard in life, but I for one could not see sign of it anywhere. Your art (at least all I could see in the 5 galleries) is built up the same way, the media, theme and basic composition is the same. I can see no struggle mastering different media, themes, compositions, skills.

You also talk about having moved around from one state to another and from one country to another but always to places with the right coastline where you have spent days sitting on the beach or surfing in between short term jobs.

Well, excuse me, that sounds like living the life as an eternal interrailer or island jumper. And well, that does not sound very much like suffering to me.

A lot of the hobbyists you obviously look down on, may have spent most of their life taking care of and working up to two jobs to support their families; kids, ailing parents etc. They might have loved to live mainly for their art when young but had to choose responsibilities instead. These days through the net and the digital revolution there are opportuneties for anybody, and I for one love the fact that loads of very talented people can develope their art further outside the local "knitting club" these days.
And yes, I do believe a 30 day art boot camp would be considered a gift from above and would result in lots of good art for many LOL if they got released from all other responsibilities for that month so that they too could sit for hours on the beach every day (without having to look out so that the kids don't drown, don't get burnt by the sun, are fed enough ice cream etc LOL)

So, I do not mind the term hobbyists, but I very much mind the way one feels that you look down on this group of art makers and what content you put into the term. I know a lot of talented art or craftsmen and women who never have had the opportunity or the morals to be so obsessed with themselves and their art as your "real starving artists". They have been too busy putting food on the table for their family to become more than hobbyists. So I look at the product and not at the person's life. Lots of good art has something special about it whether one likes it or not, whether the maker is a full time "real artist" or a hobbyist.

Trine

Anonymous said...

Readers of this thread will please note that I never
said that I was a "real" artist, nor that any of you
were not.

What I did was to state some of my opinions about
the problems that real artists face, and what some of
the identifying signs of what I like to call real
artists might be. If the shoe fits, wear it...

Lastly, I did not say, nor intend to say, that those
individuals I have labelled "real" artists are superior
to other mortals. In fact, if you'll take the trouble
to read what I said, it rather gives the impression that
being such a "real" artist is an affliction;
that is my belief, and I do not apologize.

Anonymous said...

So am I to believe that the "US" you consider yourself a part of isn't the "real artist"?

And that you do not dived artists into "most artists" the ones that you say live rather sordid lives, and the hobbiists that you group into a larger group: "Dilettantes" in your post???????

Read your post once more, please.

I do not expect you to apologize. You are entitled to your views as I am not entitled to like them because I think they show a kind of generalisations that I have never been comfortable with.

Trine

chinyew said...

heh. down boys.



art is about havin fun.
expressin feelins.

doesn't matter what content/techniques.

art is just art.

anyone doin art therefore is an artist.

it doesn't matter if you have the
skill of Monet or a 2 year old child.
it doesn't matter if you had yr work on show or not.
doesn't matter if you are traveler or not.
doesn't matter what styles you paint.

all of of you artist, should already well
know when we paint, during the deep concentration
of movin the brush on the canvas, we have
this "special" feelin that we cannot describe
in words. the feelin of joy and satisfactory
when we create art. it feels like therapy to
our soul.

we all share that same feelin.
we all know that same feelin.
but its so hard to describe in words.
but, i want to share that feelin with the
world and encourage everyone to be an artist!

we artist are just artist.
and we are one.
i believe in the world revolution of artist
bringing the world into one.

that is why www.30dayartist.com is for everyone!
anyone interested to be the next 30dayartist
is always welcome to drop by the site where
we have the forms ready.

peace to all!

-chinyew

Anonymous said...

art is an affliction
most surely

my partner just left me because I am more interested in creating images that no one wants to buy, than in focussing my energy on making money through whatever means are available.

therefore I am "not pulling my weight"

the weight of art is unneccesary in some eyes, and indispensable in others.

ming said...

art is affliction.

agreed.

but it need not be a weakness.

it is possible to fulfil social responsability, while being afflicted.

i'm sorry your partner left you.

but i doubt you can blame 'art' or blame being afflicted.

It hurts me when artist blame their 'art' for their shortcomings.

i don't mean to be offensive in anyway mr commenter, just expressing my view.